SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team couldn't contain a second half barrage by Santa Clara, falling 75-54 Tuesday night in the Leavey Center.
The Islanders (2-3) came back from an 8-0 deficit to tie in up at 13-all after the first quarter, though, an errant second quarter helped the Broncos (5-1) to an eight-point cushion at the break. Though, it wasn't until the second half where the Broncos amassed 47 points to run away with the 75-54 win.
Santa Clara only made two more field goals than the Islanders, but the main difference came at the free throw line where the Broncos scored 20 of their points off 90.9 percent shooting (20-for-22). A&M-Corpus Christi only scored six from the charity strip.
The Islanders outscored the Broncos in the paint 26-24, 30-29 off the bench, and 12-9 in second chance points.
Freshman
Torie Sevier led the team with her new career best of 17 points off a team-high seven made field goals. She recorded a block as did freshman
Bruna Anguera as the two also combined for 11 of the team's rebounds. Graduate
Alecia Westbrook bucketed four shots for nine points in addition to grabbing four rebounds and two steals.
The Broncos were paced by their leading scorer on the year, Tess Heal, with 17 points. Jayde Cadee came off the bench to sink four three-pointers within four minutes of the fourth quarter to help with Santa Clara's late surge.
Despite the Broncos jumping out to an 8-0 start, senior
Paige Allen got the put-back off the steal to get the Islanders on the board at 5:55. It sparked a run of their own as Sevier hit the jumper before junior
Jaeda Whitner nailed the three to get the Islanders within one. Sevier tied things up at 9-9 with another field goal before four straight free throws pulled Santa Clara back ahead. Though, Sevier would get her third bucket and Westbrook would find the net at the buzzer to tie things up 13-all after the first.
Santa Clara would start with another 8-0 scoring run before senior
Violeta Verano finally drew the and-one for three points with 3:08 left in the half. Junior
Maya Ellis forced a Santa Clara turnover and Verano drilled the three on the pay to make it a 21-19 game. The Broncos would respond with a pair of shots from beyond-the-arc to extend their lead to 27-19 at the break.
The Broncos got up to a 15-point lead in the third before the second chance lay-in by Anguera and the inside shot by senior
Mireia Aguado got it back down to 40-30. Westbrook drew the and-one at 3:07 and completed the three-point play as the Islanders trailed 42-33. Junior
Nabaweeyah McGill made two field goals to help chip a bit more into Santa Clara's lead 46-39 with under a minute to go but the Broncos netted a pair of field goals to send it the fourth up 48-39.
Santa Clara didn't let up and nailed a trio of three-pointers to up it to 57-39 within the first two minutes of the fourth quarter. Westbrook got up in the paint at 7:36 for two points but the Broncos stayed hot from distance and hit another three to make it a 62-41 contest. Threes by Allen and Whitner helped the Islanders get to 50, but the deficit was too much as Santa Clara closed out the 75-54 win.
The Islanders will now return home to host Texas State Sunday at 1 p.m. It will be the first home game of the year to be played at the American Bank Center.
NOTES
- It was the first ever meeting between A&M-Corpus Christi and Santa Clara.
- It marked A&M-Corpus Christi's first loss to a current member of the West Coast Conference. Prior to the game, the Islanders were 2-0 over WCC teams with wins over University of the Pacific in 2021 (81-61) and University of Portland 2003 (64-63).
- The Islanders have held every opponent this year to under .280 from beyond-the-arc, seconding the conference with their three-point defense.
- A&M-Corpus Christi has scored at least 50 points in every game so far this season. It is the first time since the 2021-22 season when the Islanders scored at least 50 points in the first five games of the season after they scored at least 50 in the first eight games.
- Sevier is off to a prominent start in her freshman campaign, scoring in double figures in three of the four games she has played in this year including in the season opener, her collegiate debut. She set her new career best with the 17 points and now leads the team in field goal percentage (.593).
- Whitner submitted her first game of the year where she made at least two three-pointers. Last year, she made multiple three-pointers in a game 13 times, and made at least a trio of them seven times where she became the first Islander since the 2015-16 season to rank in the program's top-10 for three-point field goal percentage (.398) in a single-season.
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